$20K (or a possible 120K) for your soul?

[mirzabah]

I cooked up an idea in a week

What did you serve it with?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Once more unto the breach?

My idea doesn't do anyone any good if it just sits in my head. If it is out there, living, breathing, even if it isn't what I envisioned, it is truly what it was meant to be -- an enjoyment for others.

Maybe my vision is crap. God knows Lucas may be the only person who thinks Lucas can write (notice how the more control he has over his films, the worse they turn out to be? Yeah, me niether. ). If it is crap, I'd rather have somebody else take it and enjoy it than have it sit in my brain and have nothing actually good done with it.

Yeah, sure, Greenwood is the poor sell-out? He's making millions of people happy, even if the criticism is scathing. Maybe the reason he gets criticised is that, like many other people, he's the only one who thinks his ideas are any good. Maybe the only reason people are enjoying the Realms today are the efforts of people willing to sell out. You don't need to be artsy to make people happy, y'know.

If I end up being that bitter that people aren't living out my dream, I hope someone smacks me. Until then, I will create what I think, which is a LOT of stuff.

You've said you've been rejected, right? Have you ever pondered the *why* of that? Think about what your work is missing, and inject that into it. You're the writer. You never have to write anything you're not going to be proud of. But take that creative energy, and make somebody other than yourself happy. Don't be too proud to show what you've been dreaming to others, even if it's not true, even if it is only a shadow.

 

[River]

Between what I wrote and what RangerWickett wrote, what do you think?

I think you need to grow up. You only loose your ownership rights if you make it to the top 3, and if you make it that far you will NEVER see a better deal. You want to publish 3 novels? Your best POSSIBLE chance would be to win the contest. If your world won you'd know that your damn books would get published, even if they sucked WOTC would probably contract a editor/ghost writer to clean them up with you.

I think that anyone complaining about this has never had t0o go out and earn $120,000. I WAS a freelance writer. Tthe best I ever got for 50 pages was 8K.

WOTC's offer is generous to the point of being ludicrous, so for trhe love of god quit griping!

River

 

[Aaron L]

I would be absolutely tickled if my world were interpretted by many different writers, gamers, and artists. Absolutely tickled.

I feel exactly the same! I'd LOVE to see other peoples' interpretations of my world!

 

[Storm Raven]

This, in my opinion, is better than all of WoTC's offers save one. The last thing ANY writer wants to relinquish, I guarantee, is your expanded, thought-out idea.

If you can't come up with a second, third, or fourth idea to use as a backdrop for your works in the unlikely event that WotC (a) advances you to the 100 page setting bible stage and (b) doesn't pick your setting proposal, then you have no business being a writer to begin with.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you can't come up with ten replacement ideas for your current setting off the top of your head, you will never make it as a writer.

 

[King_Stannis]

If you can't come up with a second, third, or fourth idea to use as a backdrop for your works in the unlikely event that WotC (a) advances you to the 100 page setting bible stage and (b) doesn't pick your setting proposal, then you have no business being a writer to begin with.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. If you can't come up with ten replacement ideas for your current setting off the top of your head, you will never make it as a writer.

well said!

 

[Henry]

I have to chime in here, with one thing: Very, VERY few one-hit wonders ever made their idea work on its own. It was usually picked up by someone else, who then through their own efforts made it bigger and better. Truly good writers can write well, and they can REPEAT their efforts.

Even if you got so far as the 100-page setting bible, you would need to come up with 100 pages of material in a comparatively short time. If you really were the "one-hit wonder" you seem to think you are, you would stand no chance of having that setting go any further anyway. You wouldn't be able to finish the 100 pages of material they need in order to make the other half of that 20,000 dollars.

Consider that your setting is good for two things: either getting published, and making a paltry sum of money in the scheme of things, or pleasing yourself and your players, and making NO money at all. If you have the prestige and clout to market your idea in the first place in a venue capable of making more than two cents, then it is unequivocally because you have already marketed other ideas that were found profitable. If this is your one hit, then you are sunk when you get out of the gate, because it's your door opener, and you won't go any further.

P.S. George Lucas did not make scads of money from Star Wars (Episode 4). He actually had to have Fox Studios bankroll the last million dollars or so, in exchange for most of his profits. However, he kept the toy rights - something that had NEVER made money from a movie before. His deals with Kenner in the 70's and 80's were SWEEEEEET, and made him quite a lot of money. The fact that Star Wars was such a big success opened him to returning for the other two. If he had had only ONE big idea that worked, I firmly believe there would be no Empire strikes back, and no Return of the Jedi. There would be this sci-fi-/fantasy movie that caused a big stir in the 70's, but little remembered today.

 

[Ulrick]

The real reason I didn't submit was that I sold my sold to Milhouse for $5.

Thus, I didn't have anything left to sell.


Ulrick

 

[Zappo]

Someone here buys souls? Hey, mine is as new, I've never used it. What's yer offer?

 

[Henry]

I'll give about three-fitty.

That is, assuming you ain't no Loch Ness Monsta.